The 2022 DAF Report

National Philanthropic Trust is proud to publish our 16th annual Donor-Advised Fund Report.

The 2022 edition of the Donor-Advised Fund Report examines data from 995 charitable organizations that sponsor donor-advised funds (DAFs). The results show dramatic growth in all four key metrics: grants, contributions, charitable assets and number of accounts.

DAF donors were highly active in 2021. DAFs reached a new record for grantmaking and experienced the fastest growth rates on record for contributions and charitable assets. The sharp increase in grantmaking—over $10 billion more than the prior year—is larger than what occurred at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants from DAFs to qualified charities increased more than 60 percent in the past two years, accelerating an upward ten-year trajectory. DAF grants have grown over 400 percent in the last decade. We also observe that donors who have DAFs can and do respond quickly and generously in the face of pressing challenges and serve an important role in sustained giving.

This edition of the Donor-Advised Fund Report reflects how DAF donors responded to charitable needs in 2021 and how they are positioned to continue their support. For example:

• DAF donors granted at historic levels. Grants from DAFs to qualified charities totaled an estimated $45.74 billion, representing a 28.2 percent increase compared to 2020, which itself was 28.3 percent higher than in 2019. The ten-year average rate of change for DAF grantmaking is 17.5 percent from 2011 to 2020.
• The DAF grant payout rate was 27.3 percent, the highest grant payout rate on record. Payout has remained above 20 percent for every year on record, reflecting the consistent charitable support that DAF donors provide. The ten-year average payout rate from DAFs is 22.2 percent.
• Other key metrics, like contributions and charitable assets, also increased at rates much higher than the ten-year average. For example, charitable assets in DAFs increased significantly as the stock market surged and donors made more contributions than ever before. Historically, periods with very strong growth in charitable assets (20 percent increases or more) are immediately followed by large increases in grantmaking.

Since the inception of this report, the data show that DAF donors are committed to supporting charitable organizations—over time and when their needs are greatest.

Regards,

Eileen R. Heisman
President and CEO

About This Report

A DONOR-ADVISED FUND (DAF) is a giving vehicle that enables donors to support charitable organizations and causes. The first DAFs were established nearly a century ago at community foundations. Today, they exist at different types of charitable sponsors, such as universities, hospitals, charities affiliated with corporate entities and those connected to religious institutions. Many donors use DAFs for traditional individual and family giving, and an increasing number have adapted DAFs to facilitate workplace giving programs, online fundraising platforms and other models that expand philanthropy. National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) provides this report as a public service to those who are interested in the impact of this charitable giving vehicle.

NPT began tracking donor-advised fund data in 2007. This report provides an up-to-date analysis of DAFs. It is based on data collected during 2022 about DAFs and their charitable sponsors in fiscal year 2021. Our historic data file includes records from 1,127 DAF sponsors which operated during at least some of the period since 2007. This edition of the Donor-Advised Fund Report relies on data from 995 charitable sponsors that reported assets in any year from 2015 through 2021. Please visit our Methodology section for more information.

 

Charitable Sponsors Examined in this Report

---

Glossary of Terms

Charitable Assets
The dollar amount charitable sponsors hold and manage in donor-advised funds. Some charitable sponsors also manage other types of funds, such as field-of-interest funds and designated funds. This report is limited to assets in donor-advised funds.

Charitable Organization
A tax-exempt organization registered with the IRS and recognized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Donations to a charitable organization are tax-deductible to the donor when the donor claims deductions on income taxes. A charitable organization serves broad public purposes in educational, religious, scientific and artistic fields, among others, as well as social wellbeing and public benefit activities. In the context of this report, a charitable organization can be either a charitable sponsor of donor-advised funds or the recipient of a donor-advised fund grant.

Charitable Sponsor
A tax-exempt charitable organization that manages donor-advised funds. Charitable sponsors provide services to ensure that potential grant recipients are qualified charitable organizations and administer donor-advised funds to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Also called sponsoring charity or fund sponsor.

Community Foundation
A Community Foundation is a tax-exempt organization that raises funds from the public. Most Community Foundations, both trust and corporate forms, qualify as publicly supported charities under IRC Sections 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi). It is a philanthropic institution with a long-term goal of engaging many individual donors to carry out charitable interests for the benefit of residents of a defined geographic area, typically no larger than a state.

Compound Annual Growth Rate
The compound annual growth rate is a useful measure of growth over multiple time periods. It can be thought of as the growth rate that gets you from the initial value to the ending value if you assume that the value has been compounding over the time period.

Contribution
Assets a donor gives to a donor-advised fund when establishing the fund or adding funds.

Donor-Advised Fund
A philanthropic giving vehicle administered by a charitable sponsor. A donor-advised fund allows donors to establish and fund the account by making irrevocable, tax-deductible contributions to the charitable sponsor. Donors retain advisory privileges and may recommend grants from those funds to other charitable organizations.

Grant
A transfer of assets from a donor-advised fund to a qualified charitable recipient.

Grant Payout¹
The percentage of total charitable assets at the end of one year that any one type of charitable sponsor or all charitable sponsors grant from a donor-advised fund to qualified charities and charitable projects. Grant payout in this report is calculated as grants made in the current year divided by donor-advised fund assets held at the end of the prior year.

National Charity
A tax-exempt organization with a national focus in fundraising and grantmaking. National Charities include independent organizations, such as National Philanthropic Trust, and other charitable organizations affiliated with financial institutions.

Private Foundation
A tax-exempt organization recognized under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRC formed and controlled by a donor or small group of donors for the purpose of distributing money to charitable organizations or individuals. In this report, corporate foundations are not included in the definition.

Single-Issue Charities
A tax-exempt organization that works in a specific topic area. Some common Single-Issue Charities include universities, Jewish federations, other faith-based charities and issue-specific charities, such as those in the environmental, social justice or international relief arenas.

¹This method is based on the only comparable payout rate mandated by law, that for private foundations, which are required to make grants and have grantmaking-related expenses equal to at least five percent of their prior year’s assets. Note that there are alternative approaches to calculating grant payout shown in Appendix A.

Market Overview

In 2021, total estimated charitable giving in the United States was $484.85 billion, according to Giving USA 2022. In this report, we analyze giving to and from DAFs, one type of charitable giving vehicle, for fiscal year 2021. Charities operate on different fiscal year periods, which means the reporting period began as early as March 1, 2020 for some charities and ended as late as December 31, 2021 for others.

This period was marked notably by the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in early 2020 and remains a national concern at the time of this report’s publication in November 2022. The 2020 U.S. presidential election, political unrest in the months following and a divisive political climate dominated the news cycle and American life during this period. Important events, like global supply chain issues, COVID-19 vaccine distribution, climate change and extreme climate events, calls for racial justice and steep stock market gains also marked the year that this report covers and may have influenced where and how donors give.

Economic indicators play an important role in charitable giving. In 2021, the overall U.S. economy grew:

• Businesses reopened following pandemic closures.
• Gross domestic product increased year-over-year by 5.7 percent after taking inflation into account.²
• The stock market rose significantly in 2021 with both the Dow Jones Industrials Average (Dow) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) reaching all-time highs during the year. By year-end, the Dow stood 18.7 percent above its December 2020 close and the S&P 500 was 26.9 percent higher than at the end of the prior year.³
• Unemployment declined to 5.3 percent as of late 2021, after beginning the year at 8.1 percent.⁴
• Personal income, also adjusted for inflation, rose by 3.5 percent as some—but not all—people returned to work.⁵ The growth in employment occurred simultaneously with a growth in wages, especially for lower-income workers.⁶

In response to the events noted above and their far-reaching impacts, grants from DAFs rose in 2021, as did contributions, total charitable assets and the number of DAF accounts.

Table 1: Donor-Advised Fund Metric Overview ($ Billions Except as Noted)

	2020	2021	Change
Charitable Assets	$167.81	$234.06	39.5%
Total Grants	$35.68	$45.74	28.2%
Total Contributions	$49.58	$72.67	46.6%
Payout Rate*	24.2%	27.3%	12.7%
Average DAF Size	$167,748	$182,842	9.0%
Number of DAF Accounts	1,007,745	1,285,801	27.6%

TABLE 2: DAFS AND PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS: CHARITABLE ASSETS AND GRANTMAKING* ($ BILLIONS)

	Private Foundations	DAFs
Charitable Assets	$1,302.70	$234.06
Total Grants	$96.27	$45.74

Growth in Recent Years

DAFs increased in all metrics in 2021, reaching new all-time highs and reflecting DAF donors’ continued commitment to philanthropy.

Grants Pass $45B for New Record High

Grants from DAFs to charitable organizations reached a new high at $45.74 billion. This is a 28.2 percent increase from a revised 2020 total of $35.68 billion and is one of the highest rates of increase on record⁸. The compound annual growth rate for grants from 2017 to 2021 is 23.4 percent, shaped largely by a 28.3 percent increase in 2020 and the most recent 28.2 percent increase in 2021.

Total grants from DAFs in 2012 were $8.52 billion. This means there has been more than a five-fold increase in total annual grantmaking from DAFs in the past decade. In 2021, the 28.2 percent increase in grant dollars distributed exceeded the ten-year average increase for grants of 17.5 percent.

Figure 1: Total Value of Grants Made by Donor-Advised Funds

$ in Billions

Figure 2: Total Value of Contributions to Donor-Advised Funds

$ in Billions

Figure 3: Total Assets in Donor-Advised Funds

$ in Billions

Figure 4: Total Number of DAF Accounts

Figure 5: Annual Payout Rate, Total for All Donor-Advised Funds

The payout rate formula is: Grants in this year divided by Assets from the end of the prior year.

Figure 6: Average Donor-Advised Fund Account Size

Comparison by Charitable Sponsor Types

There are an estimated 1.43 million registered public charities in the United States under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRC.⁹ The 995 DAF charitable sponsors tracked in this report comprise less than 0.07 percent of those organizations. In this report, data from three types of DAF charitable sponsors are reported: National Charities, Community Foundations and Single-Issue Charities.

 

National Charities

This report analyzes DAF data from 60 National Charities. These charitable sponsors had a combined estimated 1,128,475 DAF accounts that granted $32.19 billion in 2021.

Grants
The total value of grants from DAFs at National Charities to other qualified charities totaled $32.19 billion in 2021, an increase of 41.6 percent from 2020. The compound annual growth rate from 2017 to 2021 is 32.8 percent. National Charities distribute 70 percent of all grant dollars from DAFs. It is also worth noting that the largest DAF sponsors are National Charities that have fiscal year-ends on June 30. This means that significant levels of DAF grantmaking that occurred in the second half of 2020 are reflected in this total.

Figure 7: Value of Grants from DAFs at National Charities

$ in Billions

Figure 8: Value of Contributions to DAFs at National Charities

$ in Billions

Figure 9: Charitable Assets in DAFs at National Charities

$ in Billions

Figure 10: Number of DAF Accounts at National Charities

Figure 11: Annual Payout Rate for DAFs at National Charities

The payout rate formula is: Grants in this year divided by Assets from the end of the prior year.

Figure 12: Average DAF Account Size at National Charities

Figure 13: Value of Grants from DAFs at Community Foundations

$ in Billions

Figure 14: Value of Contributions to DAFs at Community Foundations

$ in Billions

Figure 15: Charitable Assets In DAFs at Community Foundations

$ in Billions

Figure 16: Number of DAF Accounts at Community Foundations

Figure 17: Annual Payout Rate for DAFs at Community Foundations

The payout rate formula is: Grants in this year divided by Assets from the end of the prior year.

Figure 18: Average DAF Account Size at Community Foundations

Figure 19: Value of Grants from DAFs at Single-Issue Charities

$ in Billions

Figure 20: Value of Contributions to DAFs at Single-Issue Charities

$ in Billions

Figure 21: Charitable Assets in DAFs at Single-Issue Charities

$ in Billions

Figure 22: Number of DAF Accounts at Single-Issue Charities

Figure 23: Annual Payout Rate for DAFs at Single-Issue Charities

The payout rate formula is: Grants in this year divided by Assets from the end of the prior year.

Figure 24: Average DAF Account Size at Single-Issue Charities

Observations and Projections

In the last Donor-Advised Fund Report, we predicted rapid growth in grantmaking for 2021. This prediction was informed, in part, by grantmaking we observed in the last half of 2020. One-third of DAF sponsors in our database report on a fiscal year, meaning that, for those sponsors, activity in the last half of 2020 appears in the 2021 data. We also expected growth in contributions as the effects of the pandemic continued to evolve, but we did not forecast that it would be the fastest contribution growth rate on record. Donors may have made contributions to their DAFs in response to significant stock market growth and planning for increased grantmaking in the future.

When analyzing this year’s growth by sponsor type, National Charities experienced the most accelerated growth of all sponsor types. Grantmaking increased at National Charities by 41.6 percent and at Community Foundations by 16.5 percent, while decreasing at Single-Issue Charities by 16 percent. Grants from National Charities to qualified charitable organizations accounted for 70 percent of all DAF grants. Community Foundations and Single-Issue Charities accounted for 21 and 9 percent of total DAF grants, respectively.

Charitable assets increased at all sponsor types, with National Charities seeing the fastest increases at 44 percent, Community Foundations at 34 percent and Single-Issue Charities at 24 percent. National Charities hold 64 percent of all DAF charitable assets, while Community Foundations have 27 percent and Single-Issue Charities have 9 percent.

 

What Lies Ahead?

We project next year’s report will see continued growth in grantmaking from DAFs to charitable organizations. We also project DAFs are likely to experience slower rates of growth in charitable assets as a result of volatility in the financial markets.

Our projections are based on NPT’s historical knowledge of DAF trends, data from the past year and observations on the economic and political climate in recent years.

Methodology

The 2022 Donor-Advised Fund Report examines a total of 995 charities registered under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that sponsor and/or manage donor-advised funds and that reported at least $1 in assets in any year from 2017 through 2021. These include the following organizations:

National Charities: organizations that are independent or are affiliated with investment firms and national in reach; not focused on a particular region; and do not have a specific religious and/or focus area. Examples include National Philanthropic Trust, Fidelity Charitable and Renaissance Charitable Foundation.

Community Foundations: organizations that have a specific geographic or regional focus. Examples include Cleveland Foundation, Delaware Community Foundation and Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

Single-Issue Charities: organizations that support a specific religious faith; focus on a particular issue area or cause; or fund a specific institution. Examples include Jewish Federation of Rhode Island, San Diego Human Dignity Foundation and Stanford University.

 

Primary Data Source
The primary source for each charitable sponsor’s assets, contributions, grants and total number of donor-advised funds is their IRS Form 990. Form 990 is the annual information return that charities file with the Internal Revenue Service. For those organizations that filed Form 990 returns for fiscal year 2009 and later, this information is found in Schedule D. For organizations that filed returns prior to fiscal year 2008, this may include information found on other portions of Form 990. NPT obtained copies of Form 990 via Candid/GuideStar, ProPublica and used the data available through Amazon Web Service (AWS), which also compiles the IRS forms. In select cases, NPT obtained copies of Form 990 from the organization directly.

Since organizations have varied fiscal years, which may end March 31, June 30 or December 31, data was recorded in the fiscal year in which the charity filed the 990 Form with the IRS and posted on Candid/GuideStar and ProPublica. For example, whether an organization’s fiscal year ends on March 31, 2021 or December 31, 2021, the data will be recorded as 2021. This is consistent with Candid/GuideStar’s reporting process in date stamping all Form 990s for the organizations’ respective fiscal years.

 

Continuous Data Updates
NPT performs regular audits of our database of donor-advised fund charitable sponsors, adding new charitable sponsors and archiving those that have closed. NPT compares the database against all charities that complete the IRS 990 Form Schedule D, which specifically relates to donor-advised funds. Starting in the 2014 edition of the Donor-Advised Fund Report, NPT expanded the database, covering more donor-advised fund sponsors. In this edition, the data are again compiled from the larger database. NPT studies and verifies the accuracy of the filings before adding an organization to our database. In 2022, we consulted Candid, ProPublica and other sources to verify and update our list of past and present DAF sponsors.

For this edition, NPT reviewed 995 organizations that reported at least $1 in assets from fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2021: 60 National Charities, 607 Community Foundations and 328 Single-Issue Charities. Data comes from the most recent IRS Forms 990. For some organizations whose fiscal year 2021 data was not yet publicly available, we received the data directly from the charity. Where 2021 data were not available, NPT used an estimating process. This process takes a rate of change by sponsor type for organizations where data were on file for 2020 and 2021. That rate by sponsor type was then applied to the 2020 values from IRS Form 990s, again stratified by sponsor type, to estimate a value for 2021.

NPT maintains a time series of all key data points (charitable assets, grants, contributions and accounts) back to fiscal year 2007. Some of the organizations in the file have closed or merged. There are 1,127 charities in the file. Note that as we update the list with sponsors, values for prior years (2015 to 2020) may change compared with previous editions of this report.

 

Payout Calculation
Payout from donor-advised funds is calculated to resemble how Candid (formerly known as Foundation Center) estimates the grant payout rate for private foundations.

The Foundation Center published a report about how the payout rate is determined using rules established in the tax code. The tax code allows private foundations to include as “qualified distributions” certain expenses associated with grantmaking and other payments made for charitable purposes (e.g., conferences, technical assistance for grantees and other expenses). Those expenses are too complex to track accurately for approximately 90,000 private foundations. In its work, the Foundation Center used a simpler approach, which this report now replicates and refers to as the Candid Method.

In the Candid Method, the current year’s grants are divided by investable assets held at the end of the prior year. There are alternative methods, some of which are presented in Appendix A.

Appendix A – Grant Payout Rates

Payout rates for donor-advised funds, in all common methodologies, have been consistently high and well above the mandated minimum payout rate of five percent for private foundations. Further, donor-advised fund payout rates are based entirely on grant distributions, and do not include any grantmaking-related or administrative overhead expenses, as permitted for private foundations.

In 2014, this report began using a grant payout rate formula modeled on private foundations’ payout calculation.¹⁰ This formula allows us to compare the two most common types of philanthropic vehicles. That formula is:

This year’s grants divided by
Last year’s year-end assets

Payout calculations for 2007-2021 with the most recent data available (including an expanded list of donor-advised fund sponsors and regular updates from IRS Forms 990 as they are available) and additional methods are:

Figure 25: Comparison of Payout Rates (%) Using Different Calculation Methods

All Sponsors, 2011-2021

Acknowledgments

About the Analysts:
Melissa S. Brown of Melissa S. Brown Associates, LLC provided analysis and writing services for this report. Melissa S. Brown & Associates specializes in research and writing to help turn knowledge into action, especially for nonprofit organizations, donors and the people who advise them. In addition to data analysis and presentation, services include project management, writing for fundraising and program evaluation.

Colton C. Strawser, Ph.D. of Colton Strawser Consulting supported the analysis and writing of this report. Colton Strawser Consulting services focus on empowering organizations to create change® by helping nonprofits and funders develop data, funding and leadership skills. In addition to research and evaluation, services include foundation management, organizational development and capacity building, and government grant writing.

About the Team:
This report was prepared by National Philanthropic Trust under the guidance of Eileen R. Heisman, President and CEO; Andrew W. Hastings, Chief Enterprise Officer; Emily Mullen, AVP, Global Communications; and Erin Hoyes of Weldon Communications. Richard Virgilio of Virgilio Media provided consulting and promotional services. NPT extends its appreciation to the members of our Global Communications, Creative and Project Management teams for their assistance, with special thanks to Megan Blackadar, Michaela Clarke, Kathryn Kochanowicz, Cara Levy, Marianne Mancini, Tom Miller, Becky Roosevelt, Aly Semigran and Charlie Thaxton.

NPT gratefully acknowledges all the organizations that shared their donor-advised fund statistics and information. For permission to cite or reproduce this report, please contact Emily Mullen, NPT’s AVP, Global Communications, at emullen@nptrust.org or 215.277.3043.

Downloads

• Download the 2022 Report

Archived DAF Reports

• Download the 2021 Report
• Download the 2020 Report
• Download the 2019 Report
• Download the 2018 Report
• Download the 2017 Report
• Download the 2016 Report
• Download the 2015 Report
• Download the 2014 Report